Lonely Widows Club

Ida,Lucille
and Doris are three women who have something in common: they’re widows
who’ve lost their respective husbands within a few years of one
another. As members of “The Cemetery Club” they visit their husbands’
graves once a month.

There’s clean-up to do around the
headstones, news to tell of weddings and grandchildren and memories
rekindled along with the pain and grief that resurfaces in the
remembering. Sunset Playhouse has created a warm greeting card of a
production out of Ivan Menchells’ play The Cemetery Club that
opened last week. And as good friends as they are, Menchell has created
three very different women, setting the stage for conflict, comedic and
otherwise.

Ida is the kind, sensible one, who misses her
Murray while Lucille is all sassy talk and fashion flash, missing her
Harry more for his bank accounts than his philandering. Doris is stoic
and proper; loyal to her Abe to a fault as she desperately clings to
the past while the others try to move on with their lives in their own
ways.

Enter Sam the (eligible) butcher, who runs into the trio
while visiting his wife’s grave and soon sets them squabbling over his
affectionsand romantic intentions. Director Mark Salentine keeps the
pace moving amid the two hours of laughs and some sad and serious
moments. Anyone who has lost a loved one and tried to move on with life
will surely identify with aspects of this foursome. When Sam tries to
“court” Ida leave it to Doris and Lucille to interfere with the budding
romance, trying to keep the “club” intact.

The ensemble works
well together, with Susan Loveridge leading the pack with her on-target
portrayal of the brazen Lucille. Tough on the outside but vulnerable
within, she manages a nice New York-esque accent throughout. As the
judgmental Doris, Frances Klumb is so much a part of her character that
it’s easy to forget she’s acting. Sally Marks grounds Ida in the common
sense and practicality needed to ground the other two.

These three widows really do come off as good friends trying to make sense of their lives and the losses of their loved ones. The Cemetery Club shows that there is indeed life after death. It runs through March 15 at the Sunset Playhouse.

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